The Exceptionals is set in Earth-78, a relection of the real world as seen through 1980s and early 90s TV and movies. The adventure begins in March of 1984, and follows two people who awoke in a secret laboratory, both of whom are exceptional people at or beyond the peak of human capability. They have no memory, and they have nowhere to go… except everywhere.
Locations - Characters - The Story - Episode Archive
Pilot Episode / Episode 1
The Exceptionals Wake up, and explore their home, an abandoned Lab, it quickly becomes clear that something is not right, and something very bad happened here, as evidenced by the destruction of the equipment and the long dead body of a Police Officer. The Exceptionals Encounter Lou, the landlord of the building, who confirms that no rent has been paid for three months, and he hasn’t seen the Older man who rented the space for about a year. They save his life from a drive-by shooting by the Venus 8 Gang, or so he believes, and he allows them, grudgingly, to stay there in an apartment building he owns out front for a while. The pair explore Venice Beach and Malibu Pier, and are confounded by the way things are, saving people from accidents and crime, and getting a job at the Marina.
The encounter after the wrestling goes badly when E3 is shot by a gang member, she is patched up by a resident of the apartment building, and heals astonishingly fast. the pair work day jobs at the Pier amusements. Confrontations with V8 gang members culminate in the kidnapping of a boy who lives inthe apartment to convince Lou to pay up. The Exceptionals free Tommy and foil a revenge attack on them afterwards.
First Appearances of: E3, E4, Lou, Chainsaw, “Vince Mc Mayhon”, Eddie Kline, Maria Rodriguez, Tommy Rodriguez, Harlan Thompson, Raul Vargas.
The First part of the Movie Length pilot Episode of the seires has been played, it went about how I figured. But not in terms of the specific events. Good times. The characters do not know themselves or their surroundings yet, but they will learn fast.
Second part was a bit rushed, and not as good, but it still did it’s job.
Episode 2 - “Community Gang”
The Exceptionals experiment with cooking, Fast Food, Tipping and Community brawling. Dismayed that they can’t protect everyone all the time, the Exceptionals try to form a community watch group. Which is so successful for no reason that even the Colonel comes out of retirement to scare off some gang goons. Notable flaws in the episode include: A missing scene reportedly filmed where the Venus 8 gang attack the community watch while the Exceptionals are at Work, the scene, a series of small vignettes involve individual members being attacked while alone, and the gang retreating before help can arrive. All dialog referencing this was also cut from the episode. Reportedly the reason for this was time, although other sources claim this scene was never filmed. Exceptional 4 was notably less active in this episode, with a canon reason being given, that he was trying to not draw attention, actually it was due to the lead actor suffering a minor back injury the weekend before the shoot, forcing him to take it easy for the episode.
First Appearances of: Mister Chou. While the Drugstore on the corner previously had a younger man operating it in the pilot, when the series was picked up the original actor was no longer available, being written out as a ‘former employee’ and Mister Chou was cast for the remainder of the series episodes he appears in. First appearance of Mrs. Chou. While Mrs Chou appears in this episode the actress is recast several times throughout the series, almost never appearing as the same actress twice in a row, this is due to availability.
Still finding the pacing and groove, it’s very rough and things work out too easily, will refine more. We’ll get there.
Episode 3 - “History Trail”
The Exceptionals start the episode in the rain, tracking down a laundry ticket fragment they seem to have found in the Lab, either off-screen or in cut footage from a previous episode. After a brief confrontation with Film Actors Guild union members, they help the laundry owner (played by Don Xu who actually plays Mister Chou in Episode 2) in exchange for him looking through his client book for a name which matched the fragment of a name on the ticket “or K” He finds nothing, as Exceptional Female bumbles around the laundry, leaving Exceptional Male to do the work quickly. The owner finds nothing, but does disclose a customer had torn out a page a few months back, and he had come in with a professor from UCLA who was a regular. The exceptionals head to the campus, after a brief phone call to the University, to confirm the professor’s identity. They arrive and begin examining the office of the professor who was arrested for treason two years ago, who the receptionist has mistakenly believed they were calling about. They quickly find he was likely guilty of the crimes he was arrested for, as they find much communist propaganda and even a key to an unused room in the basement that had been used as a meeting place by communist Russian conspirators, and evidence of a fight. They find proff that Eve at least was brought here six months prior, roughly, but did not initially notice that the key they used to gain entry was found in an office sealed by the Law for two years.
There are numerous production errors in this episode. In the altercation with the union members at the start, several B-roll close ups are in the dry, on a sunny day , whereas principal footage was filmed in the rain. Of note a close up of a trip, was using the wrong foot, and was at the wrong angle. Inside the Dry cleaner, several scenes of the Male Exceptional using his Surge to quickly perform tasks were shot in fast-motion, however in some shots you can see Female exceptional also moving at fast speed as the frame was not cropped correctly. In the phone booth, Exceptional female begind facing inwards as Exceptional Male squeezes past, but is facing the other way during one external shot.In the UCLA administration building the Exceptionals run down some stairs directly from the office, and wind up in the sublevel of a completely different building. This is evident as the buildings name is included on one of the sublevel signs.
First Appearances of: The Film Actors Guild Union Members, although the characters do appear again, and are played by the same actors, it is never specified that they are intended to be the same characters.
Shorter session, but I belatedly thought of the perfect second part to it after the night, so while not a two parter formally, will be played over two sessions.